Lego Ninjago Movie (2017) 🐉🧱🐱

“When your ancient evil turns out to be somebody’s house cat.”

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

So anyways…yeah…I’m just gonna get this out of the way immediately. As somebody who genuinely loves the Lego Ninjago show…this movie already had me side-eyeing it before it even started. And no, not in a “hmm maybe this’ll surprise me” kinda way. More in a “why do these characters look like they got rebooted by a corporate focus group?” kinda way.

The show already had its own identity. The character designs worked. The lore worked. The tone worked. Then this movie shows up looking like somebody shoved Ninjago into a blender with The LEGO Movie and a Power Rangers parody.

And look…I know some people love this film. Cool. More power to y’all. But me personally? Yeahhhhh…this one just never clicked with me.

🥷 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

So in this film we follow Lloyd Garmadon, who basically lives the most awkward life imaginable because everyone in the city of Ninjago absolutely hates him due to the fact that his father is the evil Lord Garmadon.

Which honestly? Kinda rough. Imagine trying to survive middle school while your dad is basically Lego Satan living inside a volcano.

Lloyd lives with his mother away from Garmadon because, y’know…he’s evil. Typical family complications. Happens to the best of us.

But secretly Lloyd is also part of a ninja team alongside his friends Jay, Kai, Zane, Cole, and Nya, all led by Sensei Wu, voiced by Jackie Chan, who honestly might’ve been one of the better parts of the movie.

Now if you watched the show, you already know Garmadon used to have armies of skeletons, serpentine snakes, stone warriors, all kinds of cool fantasy stuff.

But THIS movie?

Nah.

This man has an army dressed like sharks and fish.

That’s it.

Not intimidating. Not cool. Just…fish-themed henchmen.

It genuinely feels like somebody walked into the writers room and said:

“Kids like sharks right now.”

And everyone just nodded.

Anyway Garmadon’s plan is to take over Ninjago because of course it is. The man literally lives inside a volcano. There is not a subtle bone in this man’s body.

So he attacks the city, the ninjas jump into giant mechs because apparently this movie decided they’re basically Power Rangers now, and they go stop him.

And honestly? That’s where the movie started losing me.

Because the show had vehicles and dragons and cool gadgets, but the movie leans SO hard into giant robot action that it starts feeling less like Ninjago and more like somebody accidentally mixed franchises together.

Also yes…I am still considering reviewing Power Rangers someday because this movie kept making me think about it.

Anyway during the battle Lloyd grabs this giant laser weapon Sensei Wu specifically told him NOT to use because it unleashes evil.

And naturally Lloyd uses it immediately because movie characters hear “don’t touch that” and instantly turn into raccoons digging through garbage cans.

So what does this ancient horrifying evil turn out to be?

A giant cat.

Not even like…a monster cat.

An actual real cat.

To THEM it’s gigantic because they’re Legos.

And somehow the movie expects this to be the most threatening thing imaginable while also calling it “Meowthra,” which admittedly is kinda funny. I’ll give them that one.

So now the ninjas have to go on a journey to stop the cat and find some magical temple hidden in the woods that apparently contains the solution.

And honestly the plot kinda turns into “blah blah magical journey blah blah family issues blah blah cat destruction.”

🧍 Character Rundown

Lloyd is definitely the emotional core of the movie. His whole thing is wanting a father while also hating his father because his father is…well…Lord Garmadon.

And honestly some of the father-son stuff actually works at times. There are moments where the movie almost feels like it’s about generational disappointment and emotional neglect.

Then five seconds later somebody gets launched into a building while making a fish pun and the tone flies out the window again.

Lord Garmadon honestly carries a lot of this movie. He’s ridiculous, overdramatic, petty, narcissistic, and honestly kinda hilarious.

The fact this man launches his own henchmen into volcanoes when he gets annoyed is so cartoonishly evil that it circles back around into comedy.

And the movie weirdly makes him feel more memorable than most of the ninja themselves.

Jay, Kai, Zane, Cole, and Nya are…there.

And that’s kinda one of the movie’s biggest issues.

The show gave these characters actual arcs, personalities, emotional moments, and development over multiple seasons. Here they mostly feel reduced to background comedy support.

Sensei Wu is fun mostly because Jackie Chan gives him charm, although the movie also turns him into more of a goofy mentor compared to the wiser version from the show.

⏱️ Pacing / Episode Flow

The movie moves FAST.

Like…aggressively fast.

It barely slows down long enough for emotional moments to breathe before jumping into another action scene or joke.

And because of that, some of the emotional stuff with Lloyd and Garmadon works in concept more than execution.

The film also feels weirdly disconnected from the show’s worldbuilding. It almost feels like the writers only vaguely knew what Ninjago was and decided to make their own version entirely.

✅ Pros

I will give the movie this: visually it IS creative at times.

The animation style has a lot of detail, the Lego textures look good, and some of the action choreography is genuinely fun to watch.

Garmadon is easily the funniest character in the movie.

And honestly this line still kills me:

Lloyd: “On a scale from 1 to 10 how bad is it?”

Lord Garmadon: “Oh I’d say it’s about a…7. Arm ripped off.”

I’m sorry that delivery is amazing.

“7. Arm ripped off.”

That genuinely sounds like something I’d use reviewing movies now.

The cat stuff is also so absurd that I can’t fully hate it. The idea that this ancient unstoppable force of destruction is literally just a regular cat knocking Lego buildings over because it’s bored is ridiculous in the funniest possible way.

And some of the father-son moments between Lloyd and Garmadon do land.

❌ Cons

This barely feels like Ninjago.

That’s my biggest issue.

The show had lore. Atmosphere. Villains. Dragons. The elemental powers actually mattered. The characters had depth.

This movie strips so much of that away and replaces it with loud comedy, giant mechs, and random pop culture humor.

The ninja themselves honestly feel underdeveloped compared to the show.

The shark army is boring compared to literally EVERY army from the series. Skeletons? Cool. Snakes? Cool. Stone warriors? Cool.

Fish dudes?

…alright then.

The tone is also all over the place. One minute it wants emotional family drama. The next it’s making rapid-fire jokes every 12 seconds.

And the movie kinda forgets its own plot at times. Even in your review you literally kept going “I forget what happened here” and honestly? Same. That’s kinda the problem.

A lot of the journey stuff just blends together.

💭 Final Thoughts

Honestly…I just don’t really like this movie.

And I think a huge part of that is because I genuinely love the show it’s based on.

The show just does almost everything better. Better character development. Better villains. Better lore. Better emotional arcs. Better worldbuilding.

This movie feels like a watered-down alternate universe version of Ninjago trying REALLY hard to be The LEGO Movie.

And while I laughed a few times and enjoyed Garmadon, I mostly walked away thinking:

“Man…I’d rather just go rewatch the show.”

And honestly? That’s exactly what I’d recommend y’all do.

Go watch Lego Ninjago on Netflix instead.

⭐ Rating

5/10

⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Alrighty…full spoilers from here on out.

🐱 Spoilers

So yes…the giant unstoppable ancient evil unleashed by Lloyd using the laser weapon is literally just a cat.

An actual cat.

And honestly the funniest part is how seriously the movie treats this thing at first. The ninjas are reacting like Cthulhu himself has arrived while meanwhile the cat is basically just doing normal cat behavior. Knocking things over. Chasing lasers. Smashing buildings because it can.

And somehow this becomes the central conflict of the movie.

Also Garmadon becoming the temporary leader of the ninja group during the forest journey is probably where the movie is at its funniest.

Especially when they run into his old henchmen that he apparently used to throw into volcanoes whenever he got angry. Which honestly is INSANE when you stop and think about it for more than two seconds.

Their revenge plan?

Burn him alive in lava.

Jesus CHRIST movie.

And somehow the movie still treats all this with goofy comedy energy.

Then there’s the arm scene.

Lloyd getting his arm ripped off and Garmadon casually rating it a “7” absolutely feels like the type of joke that should NOT work…but somehow does.

Also yes Sensei Wu survives because of course he does. Movies love doing the whole “mentor falls into river and everyone assumes they’re dead” thing.

And eventually they stop the cat by basically calming it down and returning it to normal.

Which means the giant final battle of The Lego Ninjago Movie essentially ends with the equivalent of somebody removing a cat from a kitchen counter.

Cinema.